Brainstorm! Challenge

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Businesswomen can influence local politics

In reference to the story "Mayoral hopefuls reach out to women" (Star-Bulletin, June 25): When Duke Bainum spoke to the Professional Women's Network, his pledge, if he should hold the office of mayor, that "50 percent of high-level city positions, including those on boards and commissions, would be filled by women" was applauded by our organization. He was quite clear that 50 percent was just a starting number.

Over the years, we have had many speakers stress how important it is for businesswomen to get involved in city and state government in order to have effective change. It is easy to say that we should get involved, but not that easy to do. True, many inroads have been made since our organization was founded 26 years ago; but there is still a long way to go.

Mahalo to Bainum for recognizing that Honolulu has many highly qualified businesswomen and that they can be an influencing force. We look forward to having his chief opponent, Mufi Hannemann, present his views at the Professional Women's Network luncheon meeting on August 26.

Carol Williams
Executive director
Professional Women's Network

Reporting helps keep politicians honest

I would like to commend Star-Bulletin reporter Rob Perez for his recent article on gifts to state officials and employees (Star-Bulletin, July 12). Like last year, Perez reviewed gifts contained in disclosure statements filed with the Hawaii State Ethics Commission and culled out those that were questionable under the state Ethics Code's gifts laws.

I would like to point out, however, that the following day's editorial confused two of our laws about gifts by stating that ethics rules prohibit state officials from accepting "any gift worth more than $200 under circumstances where 'it can be reasonably inferred' that it was intended to influence the official."

The primary gifts law in the Ethics Code contains no dollar threshold amount. Any gift is illegal if it can be "reasonably inferred" that the gift is given to influence or reward a state official or employee for any official action taken. This law is separate from our gifts disclosure law.

Our disclosure law requires a state official or employee to disclose gifts received from a single source in excess of $200 during a one-year period from June 1 of the preceding year to June 1 of the current year if the gift or gifts are from a source that may be affected by the official action of a state official or employee.

The gifts disclosure law is distinct from the gifts law that prohibits certain gifts. Gifts reported on disclosure statements that are valued under $200 might still be prohibited if it is "reasonable to infer" that they are given to reward or influence official action. One of the purposes of the law is to ferret out those gifts that should not have been accepted in the first place.

Thanks to the work of the Star-Bulletin in reporting on gifts contained in disclosure statements, state officials and employees have dramatically cut back on accepting questionable gifts.

Daniel J. Mollway
Executive director and general counsel
Hawaii State Ethics Commission

Why can't schools fix age-old problems?

Regarding Jenifer Evans' letter to the editor (Star-Bulletin, July 18), about not being able to register for a higher math class at Washington Middle school, I find it quite surprising that the school still has a problem with this matter.

When I attended Washington Middle School as an eighth-grader seven years ago, there were a few students who wanted to enroll in a higher math class but got turned away since the class was "too full." I find it surprising that seven years later, I see a letter written by a student, who went to the same school as I did, having the same problem as some of the students had when I attended that school.

It is sad that a student who obviously wants to learn in school and be challenged, is denied those opportunities, due to a problem that should have been fixed years ago. Aren't those things the main reasons why people go to school in the first place?

If Hawaii's schools cannot offer our children the opportunity to learn and challenge themselves, then it seems that our schools are encouraging them to underachieve. This makes me think of this question: Are Hawaii's schools thinking for the students?

Alice Kim
Honolulu

Lingle isn't 'holding' education money

Regarding your July 23 editorial: The governor is not holding back education money, it is the Democratic Legislature that did not put the money in the budget revenue side!

The Legislature of Hawaii is not required to present the governor with a balanced budget. The Democrat-controlled Legislature did not even hold a hearing on the "balanced budget" proposal last session that would have forced them to present a budget with all funding sources and expenses matched.

The editorial writers and the reporters should understand that in Hawaii an "appropriation" by our Legislature is really an "appropriation without identified funding," not a commitment of identified funds. Therefore, you should be reporting that the governor is not holding up funding education but instead is trying to find funding for education.

The overall budget passed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature this last session is over-appropriated or underfunded. The Democrats had no financial plan! Now the hard work begins. Let's give credit to the Lingle administration for trying to do its best to balance needs with revenues, since the administration is prohibited by law from running a deficit.

Paul E. Smith
Honolulu

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[ BRAINSTORM! ] Hawaii's police officers are forced to endure the tropical heat and humidity in dark blue uniforms. It must get pretty uncomfortable, especially for the solo-bike officers. So this month's question is: If you could design a new uniform for our hard-working public safety officers, what would it look like? (Be nice!) Think about material, color, footwear and the different departments (patrol, detectives, solo bike, bicycle ...). We'd love to hear from members of our police force for this one, too. Send your ideas -- include your name, address and phone number -- by Aug. 20 to: brainstorm@starbulletin.com Or by mail: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson Star-Bulletin 500 Ala Moana 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Or by fax: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson 529-4750